


Back to Life

by abstruseGlitch



Category: Monster High
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-09-15 10:32:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16931637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abstruseGlitch/pseuds/abstruseGlitch
Summary: Just a series of oneshots of the main Monster High characters in a human AU.





	1. Julia

Julia sat at the front steps of Morston High School, watching the latest Flash episode while waiting for Cleo to finish cheerleading practice. There was something about Grant Gustin’s eyes that made her heart melt. Oh how she wished she could be Candice Patton so she could stare longingly at him all day. Sadly the poster in her bedroom would have to do in the meantime.

She knew that someone like her would never be good enough for someone like him. The blonde, bespectacled teenager coughed a little through the hole in her neck. She detached the cover to her stoma to allow whatever tickled to exit. Only specks of dust this time. She shooed them off with her hand and resumed the episode. No matter how jealous she was, she still though it was sweet whenever Barry and Iris kissed. She sighed through the stoma, the air catching as she exhaled.

It wasn’t long before Cleo came up behind her, startling Julia a little. “Hey, Jules,” she said. “We’re finished for the day.”

Julia smiled in response. She stood up and walked beside Cleo to her car. She made quick gestures with her hands. Sign language.

“Next Friday,” Cleo said in response. “I trust you’ll be there?” She smirked.

Julia nodded and smiled again. But she paused after a second, frowned, and made a few more gestures.

“Aw…” Cleo groaned. “Next time then?”

Julia nodded again.

They arrived at Cleo’s car, got in, and drove off.

Julia thought about next Friday. The regional cheerleading competition, and Julia wanted to be there to support Cleo, but she forgot about a doctor’s appointment that same day. She touched the cover of her stoma, the reason for the appointment.

Cleo looked over at her. “Does it hurt?”

Julia shook her head and made a few signs that Cleo likely couldn’t see as she drove. She sat back and looked out the window. She couldn’t believe it had been ten years. It did hurt some days, but not physically.

Thinking about everything sent a sting through her neck. She gasped a bit through her stoma.

She was six years old when it happened. She only remembered bits and pieces, but the most distinct part of the memory was the pain. The intense stinging pain left behind when the paintball hit her, the world going black as she lay in the grass, and then waking up with a hole in her neck. She saw her tearful mother next to her and attempted to say “Mommy,” but nothing came out.

She sometimes felt like she had been robbed. Not only her literal voice gone, but that often meant her figurative voice was gone as well. Constantly having to rely on others to be her interpreters, only occasionally giving up and going along with whatever they thought she meant.

She couldn’t remember what her voice sounded like. For as long as she could remember, she’d been using her hands to talk, and because of that, she often felt no one understood her. No one wanted to be friends with the freaky mute who flapped her arms around like a madman. Cleo was the only one who seemed to have patience with her, picking up sign language the more they hung out as kids, and acting as her interpreter when necessary. She’d gotten used to having someone be her voice. Someone who understood.

She and Cleo spent the remainder of the afternoon doing homework in the En-Nils’ dining room and watching TV. Their friendship was simple, but it meant the world to Julia. She couldn’t ask for a better friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Julia Phelps is the human equivalent of Ghoulia Yelps. In my universe, she suffered from a traumatic injury to her larynx, which led to it being removed and thus she is mute and communicates via sign language.


	2. Laura

Her alarm rang at 9 AM, just as it did every Sunday. It took Laura a moment to wake up.

Her father cracked the door open. “Bună, Laura.”

“Bună, tătic,” she groaned in response.

He laughed a little at his teenage daughter’s typical behavior. “Masa de dejun este disponibil.”

“Bine. Voi merge în jos în curând.” Although she, her father, and sister had lived in Blair, Nebraska, for ten years, they still preferred to speak in his native Romanian when at home.

She walked to her closet, opening the door to reveal a walk-in filled to the brim with clothes, both bought and personally designed. “Ce voi purta acum?” she said to herself, looking around. She pushed garments to the side, skimming for the perfect outfit. “Nu, nu, nu… Am purtat-o ieri…”

“Laura! Grăbiți-vă!” she heard her father yell from downstairs.

“Un minut!” she shouted back as she spotted the perfect outfit. She grabbed it off the hanger, quickly put it on, and took a moment to pose in front of her mirror. The outfit was perfect for the mid-April weather, but as she looked closer, she could see the beginnings of a flair-up on her shoulder.

It stung as her shirt and jacket brushed against the small welts. They probably came from the sun peeking through her curtains. It was impossible to completely prevent sunlight from hitting her. She did her best to hide under her covers, but the nightly tossing and turning made maintaining that position difficult.

She winced as she rubbed the area of the flair-up. All she could do was wait for it to go away. Suddenly she heard a knock at her door.

“Cine e?” she said through her door.

“Angelica,” her twelve-year-old sister said in response. “Dad’s getting impatient.” Angelica preferred speaking in English, even though she still had her thick Romanian accent.

“Sorry, I just noticed a flair-up on my shoulder.”

“Oh, okay.” Angelica turned to walk away. “I’ll let him know. Just don’t take too long or your pancakes will get cold.” She made sure to emphasize the word ‘pancakes.’ That got Laura’s attention.

She laughed. “Okay, I’m coming.”

The two girls went downstairs and enjoyed their Sunday breakfast. Even when her skin got unmanageable, she still felt great knowing her family was there to support her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Laura Dracu is Draculaura. She and her sister were born in Romania, so they speak it while at home. She suffers from porphyria, which is a blood disorder that can cause a huge range of symptoms. Her specific type is porphyria cutanea tarda, which most commonly sets on in adulthood but can still affect juveniles. Porphyria is actually thought to be one of the origins of vampire legends.
> 
> Please let me know if my translations were inaccurate in any way. I tried to use Latin as my basis language in translation but there were likely still some things I got wrong.


	3. Francine

Francine hoped the judges could see her on the far-right end of the second row. She and twenty other girls were all competing for the attention of one Cleo En-Nil, head cheerleader and a notoriously ruthless one as well. Although she still had to report to the head coach Verizhe. Francine could never remember how to pronounce his name.

She stretched her arms and right leg, then double checked her left to make sure it wouldn’t slip off during the routine. She’d been practicing for weeks in her backyard and it had only fallen off once.  She double checked her ponytail, her school-spirited outfit, everything she could think of. She was not going to mess this up.

Cleo stood at the front of the gym and blew a whistle.

“Okay ladies!” she shouted as everyone’s voices went silent. “I trust you all studied the routine inside and out?”

“Yes!” Francine and the other girls shouted in unison.

“Perfect! We’re going to start the music!” Cleo blew the whistle again. “Everyone get in position!”

Francine immediately took up the starting position. Her mojo was slightly interrupted by a small itch on her left thigh, but she took care of business quickly and waited for the music to start.

Bass-heavy electronic pop music blasted over the gym speakers, making the back of Francine’s throat vibrate. Though she could still hear Cleo counting to eight along with the beat as she walked around the gym, examining everyone. Francine kept focus as she performed the routine even though she could almost feel Cleo’s intense glare.

Kicks, spins, jumps, claps, all things Francine could do in her sleep with how much she practiced. She wanted to do something that earned her respect, applause, or at the very least not immediately noticing the fact that one of her limbs was artificial. Her classmates never knew how to treat her growing up. As a child, her peers would usually gossip or laugh, with the best case scenario usually being one of the boys in her grade asking her if she was a robot. That always made her laugh, since it often meant a follow-up game of Attack of the Killer Robot or some other such make-believe.

As she grew up, people stopped the gossiping, but she still had to deal with people asking her questions that she felt were either ignorant or almost offensive, albeit unintentionally so. Her favorite was “How do you do…?” with the end of the question usually containing some menial daily task that Francine had been doing for as long as she could remember. She had never known any different.

The end of the song was fast approaching and Francine was getting ready for the final move, a basic Spread Eagle jump. She got in position, locked her knees, leaped into the air, and felt her left leg detach. The vacuum seal had broken, and the leg went flying up into the air. Francine landed with a thud and attempted to catch up with her leg as it twirled through the crowd. All eyes were on her as she hopped. She finally grabbed her leg and reattached it as best she could. She stood up, finally noticing that she was the center of attention.

Francine was humiliated.

She immediately grabbed her backpack and ran out of the gym. She found a space between the vending machines in the hallway where she curled up and cried.  She was afraid this would happen. It dredged up the old memories of kids on the playground making fun of the one-legged freak.

Suddenly, she heard the gym door open, and two sets of footsteps approached her. She looked up and saw Coach Verizhe and Cleo standing above her. Coach Verizhe knelt down next to Francine, and said with a smile “Rather unbecoming of a Morston High cheerleader to bolt out of the gym as soon as the routine is over.”

Francine didn’t think about what he actually meant, and instead buried her face in her knees and whimpered “I’m sorry…”

Cleo let out a small chuckle. “It’s okay, Francine, because you made the squad.”

Francine looked up with shock. “Really?”

Cleo nodded. “I was watching you the whole time. You have serious talent, and I think you’d be perfect for the squad.”

Coach Verizhe offered his hand to Francine and helped her stand. “Cleo may be harsh with the squad, but it’s because she cares and she wants us to be the best squad in the Midwest.”

“That also means I know talent when I see it.”

Francine was ecstatic. She thanked Cleo and Coach Verizhe profusely as she grabbed them into a bear hug. The three of them walked into the gym where the other girls had seemingly already forgotten about the incident. They were all chatting amongst themselves about mutual friends, last night’s new episode of whatever teen drama, and other stuff that Francine was relieved didn’t involve her. The current members of the squad were waiting in one corner of the gym, and Cleo waved to them as she indicated to Francine. The other girls waved back with genuine smiles, and Francine was excited to finally have somewhere to belong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Francine Stein is obviously Frankie Stein, the lovable, klutzy, and so eager-to-please simulacrum. Francine was born with fibular hemimelia, where a person is born without a fibula (the bone in the back of the calf). Her left leg was amputated when she was a baby to avoid traumatic surgeries later in life. I was inspired by the story of Patience Beard, an amputee cheerleader who cheered with the University of Arkansas.


	4. Leilani

Leilani surfaced about once a second for air as she practiced her butterfly stroke in the community center pool. The hardest stroke in the sport of swimming, and she planned on mastering it before the day was over. But if she continued to surface this often, it wasn’t going to happen. When she got to the other end of the pool, Kaulana was waiting for her, stopwatch in hand.

Leilani grabbed the edge and took off her goggles, panting hard from exhaustion. “How did I do?” she asked her little sister.

“Two minutes, forty-five seconds,” Kaulana said, writing it down on the whiteboard next to her. The times had decreased with each round, but they still weren’t where Leilani wanted them to be.

She groaned and looked up at Kaulana. “What do you think? One more round?”

The light outside was turning red, and Kaulana was getting tired. They’d been there for most of the day. How did Leilani have any energy left? “I don’t know…” she said after some thought. “I’m getting hungry.”

“Aw come on,” Leilani pleaded. “One more?”

Kaulana sighed. “Can’t you come back tomorrow? Or next week?”

Leilani could hear Kaulana’s stomach rumbling as she spoke, and she had been too busy swimming to notice her own hunger. She sighed as well. “Yeah, you’re right.”

The two grabbed their belongings and left the pool. There was a small café within the community center that knew the Kaili’poli’po sisters well. They came by once a week to work on Leilani’s swimming. Kaulana usually either kept time or practiced her diving. They knew all of the lifeguards by name. One in particular was also a classmate of Leilani’s, named Will. The two would talk in between her rounds in the pool, although never more than a few words if he was on duty. Today was one of those days.

The sisters ordered their snacks and sat down at a table, Leilani strategically sitting in such a position that she could see Will’s chair. Kaulana noticed this, as well as all the other times Leilani would focus on him while they were there.

“What are you looking at?” she said teasingly.

Leilani snickered. “Who do you think?” She knew she couldn’t keep it a secret from her sister.

“I swear, you two need to go on a date already.” Kaulana took a sip of her blueberry smoothie.

“I want to, but…” Leilani sighed. “His parents are kinda…”

“Racist?”

“I guess so, yeah.” Her family had always dealt with people not totally understanding her culture or her background. Her skin was a medium tan, and to most of her peers, she was indistinguishable from those from Central or South America or from the Middle East or from India. Those who knew she and her family were native Hawaiians after moving to the mainland usually asked her if she could show them some moves. She knew what they meant, but she didn’t have the skill to be a hula dancer, and even if she did, the hula she’d perform would look nothing like what they thought hula looked like. She’d usually deflect the question by telling them they can come to her swim meets if they really wanted to see her in action. Once in a while, someone would take her up on the offer.

Unfortunately, Will’s parents were in the camp where the color of her skin was all the thought they needed to understand her. And she didn’t want Will to get the heat if he decided to date someone who didn’t look like him.

She sighed again and leaned back in her chair, thinking. She looked at Will through the pane of glass between the café and the pool. He happened to look up at the same time and waved to her. She knew that he liked her, and vice versa. She felt a connection with him that she’d never felt with another guy. It would likely take more than one girl in their son’s life to change his parents’ minds, but it’d still be a start. She smiled and waved back. If anyone was worth confronting people like that, he was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Leilani Kaili'poli'po is Lagoona Blue, Kaulana is her little sister Kelpie, and Will is Gil. She's not dealing with a disability or medical condition, unlike the previous three, but she's still dealing with personal issues related to how people perceive her. She and her family are native Hawaiians, which are an oft-misunderstood ethnic minority in the US.


End file.
